Public health response to an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease in Edinburgh, United Kingdom, June 2012

D McCormick; S Thorn; D Milne; C Evans; J Stevenson; M Llano; M Donaghy; Collective on behalf of the Incident Management Team

doi:10.2807/ese.17.28.20216-en

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Public health response to an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease in Edinburgh, United Kingdom, June 2012
D McCormick¹ , S Thorn¹ , D Milne¹ , C Evans¹ , J Stevenson¹ , M Llano¹ , M Donaghy² , Collective on behalf of the Incident Management Team³
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Affiliations: ¹ National Health Service, Lothian, Directorate of Public Health and Health Policy, Edinburgh, United Kingdom ² Health Protection Scotland, National Health Service, National Services Scotland, Glasgow, United Kingdom ³ The members of the team are listed at the end of the article

Correspondence:
S Thorn
simone.thorn nhslothian.scot.nhs.uk
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Citation style for this article: McCormick D, Thorn S, Milne D, Evans C, Stevenson J, Llano M, Donaghy M, on behalf of the Incident Management Team Collective. Public health response to an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease in Edinburgh, United Kingdom, June 2012. Euro Surveill. 2012;17(28):pii=20216. https://doi.org/10.2807/ese.17.28.20216-en Received: 10 Jul 2012

Abstract

We report an outbreak comprising 50 confirmed cases of Legionnaires' disease in Edinburgh, Scotland, June 2012. In addition, there were 49 suspected cases. Epidemiological evidence suggests that a common outdoor airborne exposure occurred over south-west Edinburgh. This probably emanated from cooling towers in the north-east of the affected area, although not yet clearly linked by scientific evidence. The co-ordinated public health, environmental and clinical response helped prevent ongoing exposure and mitigated associated mortality and morbidity. .